Billy Whizz
Billy Whizz is a fictional character featured in the British comic The Beano, first appearing in issue 1139, dated 16th May 1964, when it replaced The Country Cuzzins. Billy, the title character, is a boy who can run extraordinarily fast. His speed often causes chaos yet at the same time his ability can prove useful. He also has a younger brother called Alfie Whizz of similar appearance. Alfie is usually shown as a normal boy but occasionally he is shown to be just as fast as his brother. In strips up until the 1980s, Billy lived in Whizztown rather than Beanotown like most of the other regular characters, however this later changed and more recent strips place him in Beanotown. Appearance Billy originally wore a red t-shirt, black shorts, red socks and white trainers. In the late 1970s he began to wear trousers rather than shorts, after a strip where his Dad sent him to buy some trousers in an attempt to slow him down, but Billy chose a pair of tracksuit bottoms which did not slow him down at all. A more dramatic change occurred in 1992, after David Parkins had taken over as artist, when Billy began wearing a striking jet black tracksuit with a lightning bolt down the front. In early appearances, the tracksuit appeared as black and white, or black and yellow, but in 1994 this changed to a jet-black tracksuit marked with a red lightning bolt. From his first appearance, Billy has sported a highly distinctive haircut, with his hair being fully shaved with the exception of two long hairs at the front of his head, a style shared by his Dad and brother Alfie. In 1994, during Vic Neill's time as artist, Billy's two long hairs morphed, without explanation, into a blonde lightning flash. This style which would be retained until the strip was overhauled in 2003, when his hair reverted to the original style. Artists Malcolm Judge: 1964-1989 Barrie Appleby/Steve Horrocks: 1989-1990 David Parkins: 1990-1993 Trevor Metcalfe (first run): 1993 Vic Neill: 1991-2000 Graeme Hall: 2000-2003 Wayne Thompson: 2003-2005 Trevor Metcalfe (second run): 2005-2007 Barrie Appleby: 2008 Nick Brennan: 2009-2012 Wilbur Dawbarn: 2012- 2016 Wayne Thompson (second run): 2016- Malcolm Judge was Billy's first artist, and drew virtually every strip until his death in 1989. This artistic stability stands in marked contrast to the numerous artist changes since. Judge was initially replaced by Barrie Appleby and Steve Horrocks, although David Parkins would take over as a more permanent replacement in 1990. Parkins would change the strip's feel quite markedly during his time as artist, the most notable change being the introduction of the thunderbolt tracksuit in 1992. Vic Neill began drawing occasional strips in 1991, and drew a significant proportion of the 1992 strips, but Parkins remained Billy's main artist until 1993, when he was replaced by Trevor Metcalfe. Metcalfe would then draw the bulk of strips for the next few months until, around the time of The Beano's switch to all-colour printing in autumn 1993, Neill took over as the strip's full-time artist. Neill would draw the strip until his death in late 1999, although his strips continued to appear in the comic up in the early months of 2000, when Billy's page was taken over by Graeme Hall, who drew the strip for the next three years. Hall was replaced by Wayne Thompson in 2003, and he would draw Billy for the next two years before being replaced by the returning Trevor Metcalfe, who drew the strip using a Wacom tablet. After Metcalfe's departure from the comic in 2007, Billy appeared exclusively as reprints of strips from the 1990s, with the exception of a one-off new strip by Barrie Appleby in The Beano's 70th birthday edition in 2008. This run of reprints lasted until October 2009, when Nick Brennan became Billy's artist. Brennan's strips ran for approximately three years before Wilbur Dawbarn took over in late 2012, drawing in a style akin to that of Malcolm Judge. 4 Years later he handed the pen back to Wayne Thompson. Wayne continues to draw him. Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Heroes Category:Humans Category:Main Characters Category:Billy Whizz Category:Children Category:Beano Videostars characters